| In 1990 ornately decorate limestone ossuary (bone | | | | Roman governor. |
| depository) was found in Jerusalem's Peace Forest. In | | | | In December of 1990, an exhilarating discovery |
| the ossuary were the bones of two babies, a | | | | astounded the world of archaeology! In the Peace |
| adolescent child, a teenage boy, an adult woman, and | | | | Forset section of Jerusalem, a first century Ossuary, |
| a man about 60years of age. An Aramaic inscription | | | | or "bone box," was found. Emblazoned on the ossuary |
| on the side reads Joseph son of Caiaphas. This has | | | | were the words "Yehosef bar Kayafa," translated as |
| led nearly all scholars to terminate that the bones of | | | | "Joseph, son of Caiaphas." Excavator Zvi Greenhut of |
| the elder man belonged to the famous Caiaphas, the | | | | the Israeli ancient times Authority recovered the work |
| soaring priest in Jerusalem at the point of Jesus' | | | | of art, which is now on exhibit at the Isael Museum in |
| crucifixion. Indeed, Josephus called the first century | | | | Jerusalem. |
| soaring priest Joseph Caiaphas. The bones were | | | | Matthew, Luke and John each identify Caiaphas as the |
| buried again back on the Mount of Olives and the | | | | high priest that presided over the arrest and trial of |
| ossuary currently is located in in the Israel Museum in | | | | Jesus. The historian Josephus also identifies Joseph |
| Jerusalem. | | | | Caiaphas as the Jewish high priest from 18 to 36 AD |
| Caiaphas Ossuary, This marvelously festooned | | | | (Jewish Antiquities 18:35). Josephus also refers to him |
| ossuary found in the ruins of Jerusalem, had the bones | | | | as Joseph who was known as Caiaphas of the high |
| of Caiaphas, the first century AD. Caiaphas was the | | | | priesthood Caiaphas and Pontius Pilate Caiaphas had |
| soaring priest of the Jews under Tiberius. The | | | | no power to inflict the sentence of death, and thus |
| Procurator Valerius Gratas appointed him to the | | | | Jesus was sent to Pilate, the Roman governor, that he |
| self-esteem. He was son-in-law of Annas and was | | | | may accordingly pronounce the sentence against |
| the Jewish soaring priest who ruled over the | | | | Jesus. At later era Caiaphas's antagonism to the |
| Sanhedrin, the uppermost Jewish court, from 18 - 36 | | | | gospel is still apparent even after the resurrection - |
| AD. This made him second in influence only to the | | | | (Acts 4:6). |